A review of family interventions for intimate partner violence with a child focus or child component

Given the mounting support for the connection between IPV exposure and negative sequelae for children, the development and empirical testing of interventions for IPV-exposed children has been deemed a critical priority. However, it is difficult for researchers to build a body of research concerned with interventions for IPV-exposed children without a critical summary and analysis of existing research. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a comprehensive literature review and a critical analysis of the literature concerned with interventions that either directly or indirectly target IPV-exposed children. Our search identified 31 articles for review, and detailed summaries of all articles are provided, including the program focus, study design, sample information, and key study findings, as well as study strengths and limitations. Our analysis determined four categories of interventions in this literature review: counseling/therapy, crisis/outreach, parenting, and multicomponent intervention programs. Our findings also show that researchers have mainly tried to address needs of IPV-exposed children by offering services to children directly, and/or to caregivers who are mothers. We discuss summaries of the intervention program's foci and service strategies. In addition, we offer recommendations for future intervention research.

Research highlights
► 31 studies on programs for IPV exposed children were conducted in past 20 years.
► All are one of four program types: counseling, crisis, parenting, and multicomponent.
► However, many studies contained serious methodological limitations.
► It is not yet possible to say which approach holds the most promise.
► Greater intervention research and funding is needed for IPV exposed children.